Summary:
Stories that use internal focalization—letting readers hear a character’s private thoughts of regret—produce genuine empathy that leads readers to forgive fictional wrongdoers. New research shows this effect spills over: people who forgive a character after reading such a passage are more likely to forgive real-life offenders in their own lives.
Key Facts:
- The power of internal focalization: Exposing a transgressor’s private thoughts of remorse (for example, showing that the character thinks an apology rather than merely speaks one) significantly increased both decisional and emotional forgiveness across three studies with a combined N = 1,563.
- A real-life spillover effect: Forgiveness toward a fictional character often served as a psychological primer that made participants more likely to forgive people who had wronged them in real life.
- Precision over broad labels: Instead of treating “literary fiction” as a single, ill-defined category, the researchers isolated a specific, long-standing narrative technique—internal focalization—that reliably triggers empathic perspective-taking where broader replication attempts have been inconsistent.
Source: Ohio State University
Holding a grudge exacts real psychological and physical costs. With surveys suggesting many people live with chronic anger, researchers are seeking practical ways to reduce resentment and improve wellbeing.
A cognitive-narrative study led by Project Narrative at The Ohio State University proposes that a focused storytelling technique—refined across centuries of literature—can be an accessible tool for emotional repair.
Published in Frontiers in Psychology, the study finds that transporting readers into a character’s remorseful inner life encourages forgiveness for the fictional misdeed and also helps readers let go of real-world grievances.
How internal focalization works
Scholars have long argued that literature can expand empathy by inviting readers into perspectives beyond their own. While a 2013 study sparked debate by claiming literary fiction enhances Theory of Mind, follow-up attempts to replicate that effect produced mixed results.
To clarify the mechanism, senior author Angus Fletcher, PhD, and social psychologist Mark Matthews, PhD, moved away from broad labels and isolated one specific technique: internal focalization. This technique gives readers access to a character’s private thoughts, not just their spoken words.
The researchers created a short narrative about Mary, an 85-year-old woman who adopts a puppy after losing a childhood pet to an accident. When she hires a repairman, she warns him to keep the front door shut. The repairman leaves the door open, and the puppy runs into danger.
Participants read versions of the episode that varied in context (carelessness versus distraction) and, crucially, in how remorse was conveyed:
- External condition: The repairman speaks his regret aloud—“The repairman said to Mary, ‘I wish I didn’t leave the door open.’”
- Internal focalization condition: The reader is shown the repairman’s private thought—“The repairman thought to himself, ‘I wish I didn’t leave the door open.’”
To avoid influencing responses with modeled forgiveness, the story concluded before Mary’s reaction was revealed.
From page to real life
Across three preregistered experiments (total N = 1,563), internal focalization significantly changed how readers interpreted the repairman’s remorse. Seeing his private regret made the apology feel more sincere and reduced participants’ moral outrage, which in turn increased both decisional forgiveness (a conscious choice to release bitterness) and emotional forgiveness (the restoration of positive feelings).
Most notably, when participants were asked afterward to think about an unresolved offense from their own lives, those who had forgiven the fictional character were more likely to report forgiving a real person who had wronged them. Statistical analyses indicated that forgiveness of the fictional character preceded and mediated forgiveness of the real-life offender—fictional forgiveness served as a cognitive opening that enabled real-world reconciliation.
“If you give people a story without the empathy technique, they’re not likely to forgive a character,” Fletcher said. “But when the technique is present, they not only forgive the character, they’re more likely to forgive other people in their actual life.” Matthews added that seeing the internal remorse lets readers connect emotionally and perceive sincerity, which makes forgiveness more possible.
Stories as a preventive mental-health tool
The authors emphasize that internal focalization is not confined to printed literature; film, theater, and character-driven television can use the same mechanism. In a media environment prone to brief viral outrage, deeply focalized narrative art may be an underused, low-cost way to build emotional resilience.
“You don’t have to be in crisis to use literature,” Fletcher noted. “Used in small doses, the right stories can help with everyday anger, depression, pessimism, and anxiety—offering more joy, optimism, love, and empathy.”
By identifying the exact linguistic and cognitive triggers that foster empathy, the research aims to bridge the humanities and cognitive science and to inform narrative-based approaches for conflict resolution and wellbeing.
Editorial Notes:
- This article was edited by a Neuroscience News editor.
- The journal paper was reviewed in full.
- Additional context was added by staff.
About this research on psychology and empathy:
- Media contact: Emily Caldwell
- Source: Ohio State University
- Image credit: Image credited to Neuroscience News
- Original research (open access): Frontiers in Psychology (Oct 1, 2026). Title: “Internal focalization influences real-life empathy: a literary contribution to wellbeing.” Authors: Angus Fletcher and Mark Matthews.
- DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1968457
Abstract
Internal focalization influences real-life empathy: a literary contribution to wellbeing
Literature is often thought to cultivate lasting empathy with positive effects on wellbeing, but the complexity of literary form has made that claim difficult to test. To simplify the problem, the authors isolated a single formal technique—internal focalization—commonly used in literary fiction to generate empathy, especially forgiveness. Across three preregistered studies (N = 371; N = 449; N = 743), they measured how internal focalization affected participants’ willingness to forgive.
Study 1 showed that internal focalization increased participants’ likelihood to forgive fictional transgressors. Studies 2 and 3 replicated this effect and demonstrated that forgiveness of fictional transgressors was linked to greater forgiveness of real-life transgressors. These results suggest that the wellbeing benefits of literature can be evaluated by parsing literary form into specific techniques.